Reviews

The Dead House by Harry Bingham

peppermintbat's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

dmiller8980's review against another edition

5.0

What a great story, writer, and book! I loved it.

kathrinpassig's review against another edition

3.0

Nicht das beste in der Reihe, aber ich kann jetzt auch nicht mehr sinnvoll Auskunft darüber geben, ich bin der Serie verfallen. Die "Fiona rettet sich aus einer klassischen 5-Freunde-in-Gefahr-Situation"-Szene ist eine der besten bisher

Spoiler

(Höhlenlabyrinth!)

. Der Plot allerdings auch der größte Unfug bisher.

caroparr's review against another edition

4.0

Fiona is on the trail of whoever killed a young woman, dressed her in white, and laid her out in a small chapel near a monastery in rural Wales. The reveal is a bit unlikely, to put it mildly, but Bingham kept me reading until the very last page.

embest's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

myrdyr's review

4.0

4.25/5 stars. As always, I enjoyed spending time with Fiona. This wasn't my favourite, but it was still entertaining. I am looking forward to finding out what she discovers about the man connected to the sleeve in the photo, as well as what happens with Operation April (or whatever it is called - I have already returned my library copy, so I can't look it up). I look forward to the next in the series.

kgraham10's review against another edition

3.0

Fiona is an interesting character with her Cotard's syndrome, particularly in the first book.

Slowly the Cotard's and her idiosyncracies are just left for the reader to fill in. Fiona does stupid things and takes dumb risks which don't seem to be clearly linked to her psychiatric condition. Her training, her house, her relationships are simply signaled by short sentences or scenes.

In summary, the books are falling into a predictable pattern for plot, the character development is lazy, and the side characters are abandoned. Each subsequent book is less satisfying.

wendoxford's review against another edition

3.0

I am aware as I review that I am gorging on Fiona Griffiths, reading each book consecutively, and inevitably comparing.
It has to be said that this is a great thriller but felt rather more Dan Brown than detective fiction. Fiona Griffiths is certainly a great character and I love how the unsolved cases in her previous investigations build as the series progresses and yet I couldn't quite "believe" in this one. Very page turning but I felt uncomfortable in how much belief I had to suspend.
That said I am lurching straight into the next book!

lumbermouth's review against another edition

4.0

Pretty sleepy and boring until suddenly shit got real; unfortch this happened right before I had to go to bed so I stayed up way too late for the next few days. Kind of weird that ZERO mention of some major plot/character points from the immediately previous book? No big deal? I like these books. But five is kind of a long way to go to still be prancing around the major story arc.

theirresponsiblereader's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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What’s The Dead House About? 

The big task force that Fiona’s in, trying to get at the group she’s been on the heels of since book 1, is about to be shut down—they’re just not getting results. Predictably, Fiona isn’t dealing well with it. She needs something else to do to remind her why she’s with the police. 

Circumstances too elaborate to get into lead her into being a detective on-scene near a small village to oversee a found body until the local police with jurisdiction can take over—but in the end, we have Fiona alone in a room with a corpse for a few hours. Naturally, she develops a strong emotional connection with the body and becomes determined to find out what happened to this woman. 

There are no obvious signs of violence—and even some signs of care—to the woman, but she’s dead and she’s been left in a remote location without anyone notifying the authorities. And, it turns out, she’s been missing for quite a while. 

Fiona needles her way into the investigation, of course (because what else is she going to)—and the path that she and the DI she’s assisting leads far beyond the small town they start in and to some truly dark places. (yeah, that’s incredibly vague, but I’m faced with being vague or giving you a few thousand words almost spoiling the story beats on this one) 

So, what did I think about The Dead House? 

Yes, over the last couple of books particularly, Fiona’s doing a good job on socializing, on connecting with people, on acting “normal” (a goal she longs for and yet doesn’t want at all). I love seeing that kind of development, as much as we like to see damaged protagonists struggling to cope—it’s always great to see them making healthier choices. 

But at the same time…you put Fiona in a room alone with a corpse for too long so she develops a bond with the person she starts calling “Carlotta” (and resists using Carlotta’s actual name when she’s eventually identified)? I’m in. Fiona as the creepy detective who’s way too interested in dead bodies is just fun to read about. 

Bingham doesn’t throw out all the progress she’s made, Fiona just sidesteps it for a little bit. Her natural tenacity and the people skills that she’s developing aid her in this investigation (and her self-destructive tendencies hinder her, too). It’s really the best of both worlds as far as Fiona’s character goes. 

I wasn’t as taken with this story as I wanted to be—as I expected to be. And when the final whodunit reveal was made, I’d been waiting for it for longer than I should have been—not because I’m all that clever, but who else could it have been? That said, when the motivation and methods behind the reveal are made clear? That blew me away and creeped me out. 

I can see how this is going to help the overall arc of the series, it had some great moments—and any time spent in Wales with Fiona is a reward. But I wanted a bit more from this one. Don’t start with this one if you’re interested in the series, but if you’ve read the rest, you’ll enjoy this one.